By Liam Byrne @tvtimelimit
Having won the right to face Marius Al-Ani the previous night, Julian Pace opened the second night of the World Tag Team League with his Shotgun Title shot. The early exchanges are all about the arrogance and nous of Al-Ani, who throws Pace out of the ring twice, whilst also halting two attempted Voll Gas attack by Pace with a clothesline to the outside and an ankle lock respectively. This ability to stay one step ahead of Pace allowed Al-Ani to bully his opponent with a choke. A brainbuster later on earned him a two count, yet a Pace superplex almost caught Al-Ani out for a nearfall. Al-Ani immediately slapped on the ankle lock as he kicked out, but it wasn’t enough for the submission.
Pace would land his Code Red, only for Al-Ani to kick out at two, before Pace outthought Al-Ani for the first real time in the contest by escaping a dive to the outside and hitting a rolling senton of his own over the corner post. With the Code Red failing before, Pace goes for a BME-style moonsault, though this causes him to land into Al-Ani’s ankle lock for the finish. Pace looked like he was going to win at points down the stretch, but a good contest consider Al-Ani was always going over.
The first tag contest saw CCK take on Okami, with a win and a loss opening their respective accounts. After some early feeling out, it would be Chris Brookes earning some boos as he took advantage of a Hideyoshi Kamitani bow to grab a side headlock, with Jonathan Gresham following up with a German suplex. Daichi Hashimoto would also have his leg targeted by both members of CCK, before Kamitani hit an impressive vertical suplex on Brookes. This led to Brookes getting trapped in Okami’s corner, but a back senton off the top to Kamitani allowed him to make the tag to Gresham.
Gresham would land multiple boots and dropkick on Kamitani in particular, whilst his attempt at an ankle lock had to be broken up by Hashimoto. After the Okami double suplex/double kick combination, Gresham and Kamitani would end up with a strike exchange as they held an Octopus hold and a Boston crab on the others’ partner. There would still be time for a strike exchange that saw Gresham in particular get mushed by a Kamitani lariat before Brookes went down to a brainbuster by Hashimoto, having initially kicked out of a shining wizard. This left both teams on three points after two matches.
Between the contest, we were shown a video montage of Doug Williams as it was announced he was going into the wXw Hall of Fame. A deserving addition – no questions asked.
Two losers from the first night met next as Team SPLX collided with JayFK. Angelico’s arm work and escapes are always impressive, whilst both Francis Kaspin and Jay Skillet had no interest in stepping into the ring with Jeff Cobb. When they tried to engage, it wasn’t pretty as Cobb caught Kaspin out of midair to set up a suplex/crossbody combination for two. Kaspin saving Skillet on an Irish whip and subsequently shoulder charging Angelico in the stomach turned the tide, with the South African superstar isolated for long periods, though he did use a nifty rolling cradle to almost steal the pinfall.
A selection of kicks allowed him to make the hot tag, leading to Cobb throwing both members of JayFK around with belly to belly suplexes. A tribute to the Rock saw a People’s Standing Moonsault, but the Doomsday knee combination saw Skillet save his partner. Cobb would also land a double side suplex on JayFK, but it was the big guy who was caught with a low blow by Kaspin, tripped into a pin and held down with additional work from the apron by Skillet. JayFK pick up the upset win in a match I enjoyed a lot, but then I love heel JayFK. Team SPLX remained on zero points through two matches; JayFK picked up their first win.
Dirty Dragan would come out for the first time in a while since his spell in rehab, with one thing on his mind – the last match in the Dirty Dragan Trial Series. He is very emotional, especially as he states that he will leave if he loses. It was his decision who to fight, but as Emil Sitoci joins him in the ring, he can’t quite say who he is going to fight. The obvious choice soon comes down to go face to face with Dragan as a freshly shorn Jurn Simmons enters. Sitoci leaves on pain of attacking Simmons if he does anything to Dragan, but it is Alexander James who attacks Dragan from behind! Simmons and James attack both Dragan and Sitoci, including multiple belt shots and a ‘decapitation’ kendo stick blast to Dragan’s neck to end the segment.
The other team sitting on zero points other than Team SPLX was surprisingly RINGKAMPF, but they have a chance to change that as they took on the Lucha Bros. The highlight of the initial exchanges saw WALTER and Pentagon El Zero M going nose to nose, including WALTER stopping the Penta ‘Cero Miedo’ gesture with a brutal chop. This kickstarted a back and forth between the two teams that ended with Thatcher getting dropped with a lungblower/double footstomp combination. Thatcher threatened to be isolated, but a simple throw halted a Fenix Jr. springboard armdrag and he unleashed several strikes from the mount. WALTER was even more damaging, leathering him with a chop and bending him over the top turnbuckle.
Fenix would use his athleticism, swinging through the middle ropes and hitting a roundhouse kick, to tag in Penta, who entered with a collection of slingblades. This would inevitably lead to further strike exchanges between WALTER and Penta, before Fenix and Thatcher collided with a crossbody by the former and a belly to belly followed by a butterfly suplex by the latter. Fenix would land his springboard armdrag, only to get blasted with a shotgun dropkick immediately. Thatcher would manage to avoid a teabag driver/double footstomp combination, keeping RINGKAMPF in the match long enough for him to nail Penta with a European uppercut, lock in an armbar, and watch as WALTER grabbed Fenix in an STF. A roll through would earn Thatcher the pin as Fenix tapped out as well. An excellent contest, helped by the general presentation of WALTER and Penta across the independent scene. RINGKAMP and the Lucha Bros finished the night on three points each.
With both women having excited the Femmes Fatales tournament earlier that day in the first round, Toni Storm and Wesna faced off in a match that would offset some of those woes. A handful of hair would allow Storm to initially keep a hold of a headlock and a takedown, but with the leg being a target after Storm’s match with LuFisto that same day, Wesna would look to target the injured limb. A low bridge allowed Storm to hit a suicide dive, whilst a backcracker in the ring earned her two. The injured leg saw Storm collapse on an Irish whip, but a German suplex moments later had her back in control.
Wesna had not been in the contest much at all, only to block a Strong Zero and hit a northern lights suplex from the second rope followed by a tiger driver for successive nearfalls. Storm did manage to score with the Strong Zero, yet Wesna kicked out at two. After a ‘teabag’ driver for a Wesna nearfall, a headbutt and the Strong Zero would end the contest in the favour of Storm. Storm dominated for the majority of the match, which just served to highlight her position in the hierarchy of wXw’s Women division, though didn’t always make for the most engaging of contests.
The final tag match on the show saw Monster Consulting meet Aussie Open as the wXw Champions were looking to go out into the lead in Group B. They started well, even hitting tandem five punch/shoulder charges in the corner to attack both Mark Davis and Kyle Fletcher, leading to Davis collapsing out of the ring due to the attack. However, Consulting were soon on the back foot, helped by Davis’ landing a slam and senton on Julian Nero, as well as a comeback by Avalanche being cut off as Davis would hit a vertical splash from the corner before an Alphamare Waterslide kept Nero down. Fletcher wasn’t exactly sitting around, landing a frog splash on Nero for two, though another dive was caught and turned into a Wasteland.
Davis would have their obligatory ‘big man exchange’ before Avalanche hit a suplex on his opponent, whilst Consulting would utilise their sidewalk slam/legdrop combination moments later. The match became all about saving respective partners from double team moves, as an assisted Go2Sleep was broken by Fletcher hitting a facebuster variation on Nero. Even more impressively, an assisted ace crusher that was blocked saw Avalanche hit a Samoan drop on both members of Aussie Open! A ripcord lariat on Fletcher saw Davis push him out of the way, before an attempt on Davis was stopped by a Fletcher superkick. With Nero down following a sliding forearm, Avalanche would end up hiptossed onto Nero, leading to a fidget spinner finish for the Open. An exciting finish to this night’s tag action, and considering I thought Consulting could sweep their group, a surprise result. Aussie Open had put themselves in a strong position with six points; Monster Consulting remained on three.
Having injured his shoulder, Absolute Andy was pulled from the triple threat main event, with Ilja Dragunov and Bobby Gunns competing for an interim title. Whilst this might have been a big let down, the atmosphere for this contest was ridiculous. The chants almost went bell to bell as two of the most popular men on the roster went back and forth, with the fight spilling to ringside early on from a simple collar and elbow tie up as they jockeyed for position. Dragunov would use the chairs to help break up a guillotine choke, before a backflip into the ring and a running forearm earned him a two count. Gunns’ submission attack saw him utilise a bridging armbar and a half boston crab, following up with a judo throw and an armbar, though Dragunov utilised a side suplex to break the hold.
Dragunov would have some success with multiple clotheslines in the corner, before turning a Gunns attempt to break his fingers into a nearfall off of a move that sent Gunns crashing headfirst into the canvas. Dragunov took a risk by attempting to go coast to coast, Gunns landing a superplex and eventually working his way into an armbar. Using his power advantage, Dragunov dumped Gunns with a powerbomb to break the hold. Myriad strike exchanges peppered this contest, with a spinning chop attempt leading to Gunns ducking straight into a Dragunov DDT.
After some further suplex exchanges, Dragunov would swing around in the ropes to gain momentum for a lariat, before hitting a coast to coast. The strikes would spill out onto the apron, with Gunns dumping Dragunov with a powerslam on the edge of the ring. Back inside, Gunns grabbed Dragunov’s fingers to break them, only for the Russian to put up the middle finger himself. Gunns’ desires to hurt Dragunov further cost him as Dragunov was able to hit the Torpedo Moscow out of nowhere for the win.
The atmosphere was special; the match was decent, if not as good as it could have been with Andy in the ring. You can’t help feeling that the change of match lead to a change of booking as Gunns was guaranteed a huge reaction if he won in front of a significant UK/Irish contingent. However, Dragunov versus Andy is a bigger match for the VeterAAn’s return, and I look forward to him getting back into the ring – let’s hope that he isn’t out for too long.
Another strong showing, though the action in the tag league outshone the matches around it for sure this night. Everything has built to Night Three though, so it’ll be interesting to see what the promotion has in store for us there.
